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Hurricanes-Tigers Play in Third Annual ABC Sunday Night Labor Day Weekend Presentation

First Regular Season Matchup Since 1988; Only Third Overall Meeting in Nearly 50 Years

Miami and LSU, originally scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018, will now be played on Sunday, Sept. 2, 2018, at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC as part of ESPN’s networks five-day college football kickoff weekend showcase. The game, which will be played in AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, will mark the third consecutive year ABC has aired a prime time game on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend.

The 2018 opener for the Hurricanes and Tigers will mark the first regular season meeting between the two schools since 1988 and just the third overall meeting since 1969. The Tigers beat Miami in the 2005 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, the last meeting between the ACC and SEC schools. Overall, the teams have played 12 times, dating back to 1946, and the Tigers own a 9-3 advantage in those matchups.

AdvoCare Classic Celebrates 10th AnniversaryThe 2018 AdvoCare Classic will mark the 10th anniversary of the annual kickoff weekend game. The Tigers have played in the game twice, beating Oregon 40-27 in 2011 and TCU 37-27 in 2016. Next year’s game will be the first-time Miami has participated and the team’s first game at AT&T Stadium.

ARLINGTON, Texas — The message for all those young Michigan players was clear in the letter from a 13-year combat veteran that coach Jim Harbaugh read to them the night before the first game.

“Just to hear that letter and say, OK, there’s 18- and 19-year-old guys going over there defending our freedom, why can’t we step out onto the field … and play a simple game of football?” quarterback Wilton Speight said after the 11th-ranked Wolverines beat No. 17 Florida 33-17 on Saturday.

While Speight is a senior, the Wolverines had to replace 18 of 22 starters from last season and there are youngsters on the roster.

Quinn Nordin, in his first college game, became the first Michigan kicker to make two 50-yard field goals in the same game, freshman Tarik Black had a 46-yard touchdown catch and the overhauled Michigan defense didn’t allow a touchdown while handing Florida its first season-opening loss in nearly three decades.

Anthony Riddle, who is from Jackson, Michigan, shared in the letter some of the experiences of training and combat that he and his fellow young Marines went through. Riddle wrote that he was responding to naysayers who believed Michigan football was going into this season too young and too inexperienced.

“The message, it’s irrelevant what the age is,” Harbaugh said. “It’s a group in a unit or on a team that come together and do their job. … It was better than anything I could have told the team.”

Michigan trailed 17-13 at halftime before scoring three times in the first 6 minutes of the second half. The Gators had won 27 consecutive season openers, the nation’s longest such streak, since a home loss to Mississippi in 1989.

“It’s gonna hurt, and if it doesn’t, then something is wrong,” Florida coach Jim McElwain said. “We have a lot more to play. I like this team, I like the guys on this team. I think we have a chance to grow and I believe we will.”

After Karan Higdon’s 3-yard TD run capped a half-opening 75-yard, 10-yard drive, Ambry Thomas forced and recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff. That set up a 30-yard field goal by Quinn, who then made a 50-yarder after Michigan recovered another fumble.

“This win was a good start for the season for us, build our confidence, allow us to see what we’re capable of,” sophomore linebacker Devin Bush said.

Florida’s only touchdowns came when Duke Dawson and CJ Henderson returned interceptions for touchdowns. Those came on consecutive throws by Speight in the second quarter.

“I thought Wilton did a good job getting calmed down,” Harbaugh said. “Showed a lot of resilience, our team today, and I’m very proud of that.”

SLEEPY TIME

Nordin made four field goals, including a 55-yarder in the first half. He missed two attempts wide right in the fourth quarter, one of those from 52 yards. The nation’s No. 1 kicker in the 2016 recruiting class, Nordin had initially committed to Penn State but signed with the Wolverines after a home visit that included a sleepover by Harbaugh.

“It was the craziest thing,” Nordin said of his debut, not the sleepover. “I just went out there and did what I was supposed to do.”

THE TAKEAWAY:

MICHIGAN: While the defense has been greatly overhauled — remember, there were eight Michigan defenders drafted off last year’s unit — the Wolverines limited Florida to 192 total yards (only 11 yards rushing). They even scored a late touchdown on a sack that resulted in a fumble recovered in the end zone. Aside from the interceptions on consecutive throws, Speight was 11-of-23 passing for 181 yards with the TD to Black.

FLORIDA: It was really hard to judge the Gators with their leading returning receiver Antonio Callaway and top returning rusher Jordan Scarlett among 10 players suspended for the opener. Redshirt freshman quarterback Feleipe Franks, in his first start for the Gators, completed 5 of 9 passes for 75 yards and lost a fumble early in the second half. Notre Dame transfer Malik Zaire came on after that, and was 9 of 17 for 106 yards.

“We needed to shake up the batting order a little bit,” McElwain said. “I thought Malik would come in and give us a change of pace at that point when we were still in the ballgame.”

UP NEXT

MICHIGAN: The Wolverines play their home opener next Saturday in a first-ever meeting against Cincinnati.

FLORIDA: The Gators have their final tuneup before SEC play, hosting Northern Colorado for their home opener next Saturday.

The AdvoCare Classic has announced three additional premier matchups that will carry the series through the end of the decade.

The series continues a tradition of pitting two of college football’s top powers against each other at AT&T Stadium, located in Arlington, TX. The series began in 2009 when Oklahoma, ranked No. 3 in the country and led by reigning Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford, suffered a 14-13 upset loss to No. 20 BYU. For the next decade the AdvoCare Classic produced compelling matchups, exciting finishes, and premier games to kick off the college football season, and the future matchups in store seem likely to continue that trend.

The 2017 contest will feature the Florida Gators making their first-ever appearance in AT&T Stadium. The Gators will matchup against the Michigan Wolverines in a major cross-sectional showdown. The game, which will be played on Saturday, September 2, will be the first meeting in the regular season between the teams, but their fourth meeting overall. Traditionally the teams have battled in bowl games, with Michigan owning the upper hand. Michigan collected wins against the Gators in the 2003 Outback Bowl (38-30), the 2008 Capital One Bowl (41-35), and just recently in the 2016 Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl (41-7).

In 2018 the LSU Tigers return to AT&T Stadium and the AdvoCare Classic for their third appearance in the series. Their foe will be the Miami Hurricanes of the ACC on Saturday, September 1. LSU and Miami last faced each other in the 2005 Chick-fil-A Bowl, with LSU collecting a resounding 40-3 victory. The Tigers also lead the all-time series 9-3. Miami’s last win against the Tigers came in Tiger Stadium in 1988 when the Hurricanes drubbed the Tigers 44-3, tying the largest margin of victory in the series. LSU is 2-0 in its previous AdvoCare Classic appearances, defeating Oregon 40-27 to open the 2011 season and beating TCU 37-27 in 2012. Miami has not yet appeared in the AdvoCare Classic.

The 2019 contest continues the theme of pairing a newcomer with an AdvoCare Classic series veteran. On August 31, 2019, the Auburn Tigers and Oregon Ducks tangle in a rematch of the 2011 BCS Championship Game, the final game of the BCS era. The teams will meet for only the second time in history. Auburn defeated Oregon 22-19 on a field goal as time expired in the 2011 title game. Oregon’s lone previous appearance in the series came in 2011 when they fell to another set of SEC Tigers, the LSU Tigers, 40-27.

Since 2009, the AdvoCare Classic has hosted three teams that played in the national championship game the previous season. That will happen again in 2016 when the reigning national champion Alabama Crimson Tide host the USC Trojans. Additionally, the AdvoCare Classic has served as a launching pad for teams advancing to the national championship game, with the AdvoCare Classic participant winning two of those national championship contests, most recently in 2015 (Alabama Crimson Tide).

ARLINGTON, Texas — While Nick Saban wants to see improvement, top-ranked Alabama was pretty impressive in the opening of its national-title defense — without a proven quarterback and with Heisman Trophy-winning tailback Derrick Henry in the NFL.

That Crimson Tide defense, down four players taken in the first two rounds of the NFL draft last spring, is still physical and dominating, too.

On the season’s first Saturday, when two top-five teams lost, freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts threw two touchdown passes to ArDarius Stewart and ran for two more scores in a 52-6 victory over No. 20 Southern California on Saturday night.

“We got off to a little bit of a shaky start in the first quarter, especially on offense,” Saban said. “We scored a lot of points, made a lot of big plays, but still our consistency in execution needs to be much improved. … My focus with our team right now is what can we do better.”

At least the Tide is 1-0, unlike No. 3 Oklahoma and No. 5 LSU after their losses Saturday. And No. 16 UCLA lost as well.

USC coach Clay Helton sees Alabama a little different than Saban after the Trojans were held to 194 yards in their most lopsided loss since a 51-0 setback to Notre Dame in 1966.

“Obviously one game does not make a season. We played a very good team,” said Helton. “They played to their potential. The cold hard truth is we did not play up to ours.”

Stewart was wide open in the end zone behind the secondary when Hurts hit him for a 39-yard score midway through the second quarter that made it 7-3 and put Alabama ahead to stay. They hooked up on a 71-yard touchdown right after halftime for a 24-3 lead, and Hurts later had TD runs of 7 and 6 yards.

“Hopefully it’s a statement we’re still going to fight, still going to play,” Stewart said about the team’s performance.

The season-opening win came at AT&T Stadium — the home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys — was also where the Crimson Tide started their 2012 and 2015 national championship seasons with victories.

The Tide are 10-0 in season openers under Saban, including seven non-conference games at neutral sites against Power Five teams that they have won by an average margin of 23 points.

THE TAKEAWAY

USC: The Trojans may be targeting their first Pac-12 title since 2008, but they weren’t ready to compete with the defending national champions.

USC was held without a touchdown in a game for the first time since 1997, and for the first time in a season opener since 1960. It was the fewest points since a 10-6 loss to Utah in the 2001 Las Vegas Bowl.

Junior quarterback Max Browne waited three years for his first start, and had a tough time against the overwhelming Alabama defense. He was 14 of 29 for 101 yards with an interception. It certainly didn’t help him that receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, who had 89 catches for 1,454 yards and 10 touchdowns last season, had only one catch for 9 yards when targeted five times.

ALABAMA: While the Tide are still unproven at quarterback after playing two freshmen, the biggest hole on offense was left by Henry’s absence. Sophomore Damien Harris showed the ability for some big plays with runs of 46 and 73 yards. He finished with nine carries for 138 yards.

STOMP AND YOU’RE GONE

Southern Cal defender Jabari Ruffin was ejected from the game late in the first half when at the end of a punt return he stomped his foot into the groin area of Alabama’s Minkah Fitzpatrick, who was on the ground. The play happened right in front of referee Reggie Smith, who immediately threw a flag. When announcing the penalty, Smith said, “No. 40 has disqualified himself from the game.”

POLL IMPLICATIONS

USC: The Trojans will almost certainly be unranked before playing their next game. They still have a lot to prove to voters.

ALABAMA: There shouldn’t be any questions about Alabama staying the No. 1 team when the new poll comes out Tuesday.

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